kozz -> RE: Change of life style (Feb. 23 2010 7:13:30)
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quote:
Yes looking for the niche is good advice. The first year here during a Spanish class we were asked to write down our dreams for the future. Mine was to buy a house in the Albaicin and live in Granada. The teacher looked at me and said " well you have to be either very rich or have some skill that no-one else here has". Needless to say I had neither. A few years later I met my profesor in the street and he asked if I was back on holiday. I told him that I was now living in the Albaicin where we had bought a house and he asked if I had won the lottery. No, I said we discovered that my husband had a skill here that no-one else had, 40 years of experience of music production. We had been here only a few months when one night in a bar a friend came in all excited saying that Enrique Morente wanted to meet Harold. It was 3 am but that did not seem to be a problem, Harold set off for the Morente studio where they were working on a project and had become stuck with the mixes. Harold mixed the tracks in a matter of hours. He went on to work on Estrella's first two albums. Other projects followed, a TV series of live music which run for 3 months and broadcast every night, a best selling jazz album, film work, rock albums, and award winning flamenco albums and tours with flamenco artists. He now does sound production for Farruquito. That's not to say there have not been lean times and difficulties. We eventually bought our house, but we nearly gave up on that dream as no-one would give us a mortgage, until Enrique called his bank and a mortgage was instantly approved. This is another aspect of Spanish life, it is called enchuffismo, meaning to be plugged in, or well connected. It can work for you or against you, but is a fact of life here and can be very frustrating. If you want to open a restaurant find the most influential people in the town, get introductions and invite them to eat Thanks Kate, its very clear. Good to hear it all went that way. When I had to choose for my follow up study I had two options, one was Audio Engineering and the other Chemistry,...I choose the latter. Seeying opportunities is very important, I totally agree. Good advise by the way about meeting up with people. I've seen those shows, like I mentioned in the post above, that the people moved to a village, didn't speak any spanish, and therefore were not able to integrate into the society, which is very important. About the mortgage, I hadn't give that any thought actually....assuming that would be as normal as it is overhere. Good point! Thanks.
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